THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



299 



Wind-Breaks— Bee-Passages.— Wm. 



M.Ross, Lebanon,? Ills., ou Mayl, 

 18a5, says : 



AltlioiiKh the wiiitor jiLst passed has 

 been uiuisuallv scveriN and a sreat many 

 have lost heavily, some even all tlieir bees 

 from one cause or another, my losses are 

 very light, being only 3 colonies out of 80. 

 My'bees were all wintered on the sunuuer 

 stands in single-walled liives with natural 

 storeii— pcdlen and all— except one colony 

 which had frames of honey taken from an 

 upper story whieli eontained little or no 

 pollen. Tliis colony fared no Ix'tterthan 

 the rest. 1 never had bees in better condi- 

 tion in the spring than thev were this 

 spring. I think a good wind-break is nec- 

 essary in such winters as the one we have 

 just passed tlirough : and above all have 

 the hive so arranged that the liees can iiass 

 over the tops of the frames, lor this will 

 often keep them from star\ing witli plenty 

 of honey in the hive, as ni very cold 

 weather the heat from the cluster passes 

 upward, and the bees are enabled to pass 

 from one comb to another, where, if they 

 had to pass under tlie frames, they would 

 be chilled as soon as they left the cluster. 

 Bees are leathering honey from the fruit- 

 bloom to-Llay. 



Sugar Syrup for Winter Stores.— W. 



M. Carr, Bradford,? N. H.,on May 1, 



1885, writes thus : 



In the spring of 1884 I obtained 3 colo- 

 nies of pure Italians, and increased them 

 to colonies by division. In tlie fall 1 ex- 

 tracted the honey and fed sugar syrup to 4 

 colonies, and left one of these, and one 

 with full frames of honey, packed in chaff 

 on the sunnner stands. 1 put 3 colonies 

 having syrup stores, and one with fall 

 honey, into tlie cellar under my house. 

 The i colonies that had sugar syrup came 

 through in good condition with very few 

 dead bees ; both ol the colonies that had 

 honey died, and the combs are badly soiled 

 with diari'hetic excreta. 



Heavy Losses of Bees. — 11 — R. C. 



Aiken, Shambaugli, p Iowa, on April 

 30, 1885, writes as follows : 



The winter of 1880-81 was a very severe 

 one, but during the past winter, although 

 not quite so long or severe as that of 1880- 

 81, the loss of bees has been nmch greater 

 in this part of the country. I have been 

 gathering statistics with the following re- 

 sults : Reported in this couuty (Page) last 

 fall 700 colonies ; yet living 175. This rep- 

 resents, perhaps, not more than one-half or 

 two-thirds of the bees in the county. One 

 bee-man who had 110 colonies last fall, and 

 who wintered about one-lialf of them in a 

 cellar, saved a little over one-half of his 

 number ; about 90 per cent, of the balance 

 were wintered without protection. Taking 

 the county over, I am satisfied that there is 

 not more than 10 per cent, of the bees now 

 living. Cellar wnitering has proven the 

 best by about .50 per cent. The winter of 

 1880-81 was one of steady cold from No- 

 vember to April (the bees having no flight 

 for about 5 or 6 months), and with a gi'eat 

 amount of snow, but with an average tem- 

 perature somewhat above that of the past 

 winter. L/ast winter set in about Dec. 1, 

 and was noted for spells of intense cold 

 with one thaw every moon, and with 

 spring opening in March. We did not 

 have the amoimt of snow in this part of 

 the country last winter that was had in 

 other parts. The following is a compara- 

 tive statement of the condition of the bees 

 for the two winters : In the fall of 1880, 

 the colonies were strong, they had plenty 

 of fall honey, it was steady, long-con- 

 tinued cold, no flights, and diarrhea, with 

 desertions in the spring. In the fall of 

 1884 the colonies were weak in numbers 

 and honey ; they had a flight about once in 



every four weeks. By midwinter one-half 

 had starved to death, and by February 

 there was much breeding, diarrhea and 

 starvation with some freezing, resulting 

 from intense cold following a few days of 

 warm weather. In March and April there 

 was dwindling and starvation. The loss 

 for 1880-81 was from one-half to two-thirds 

 of the bees ; loss for 1884-85, three-fourths 

 to nine-tenths. Deductions : With plenty 

 of stores and an even temperature, if not 

 too low, is best. Cellar wintering is better 

 than out-doors. My own report for the 

 season of 1884 is, no honey taken. It was 

 the poorest honey season in ten years. I 

 increased my number of colonies nearly 

 one-half. My number, last fall, was 80 ; 

 now, 11. Out of 43.5 colonies reported for 

 Madison county, only 14 are left. One 

 apiary consistetl of 300 colonies, now noth- 

 ing is left ; another of 190 colonies fared 

 the same. 



A Southern Honey-Plant. — Harry 

 W. Mitchell, Hawk's Park,© Fla„ 

 writes thus about a Southern honey- 

 plant : 



I send you a small branch of a plant as I 

 wish to know its name. It is the best 

 honey-producer we have here during 

 Marcli and April, with the possible ex- 

 ception of the orange. 1 cannot find out 

 the name of it from any of the residents 

 here ; some claim that it is a species of 

 myrtle, which 1 hardly believe. 



[The plant is " Kalmia augustifolia." 1 

 am glad to hear such high praise of this 

 beautiful plant, which Prof. Agassiz styled 

 the gem of the vegetable world. As will 

 be seen on page 385 of my Manual, a near 

 relative has been given a very questionable 

 reputation. I have long wondered whether 

 any of the mountain laurels produced 

 poisonous honey.— A. J. Cook.] 



Cold. Rainy Spring. — 13 — C. M. 

 Kingsley, Elvason,-K3 Ills., on May 1, 

 1885, writes : 



The sun is shining this morning, and 

 what bees are left are beginning to fly. 

 The winter was so hard on them, and the 

 sprmg has been so cold and rainy, that 1 

 feared I should lose all of my bees, but I 

 still have 30 colonies left, which 1 think 

 will srrrvive. 



Cleansing Spotted Combs.— I, N. 



Bayles, Urbanua,o+ Iowa, writes as 

 follows : 



My loss during the past winter was 17 

 colonies out of 55 ; the most of them hav- 

 ing died with the diarrhea, and some that 

 were quite strong when put out of the 

 cellar, nave dwindled badly. The weather 

 has been so cold that they could not 

 gather pollen at the time they needed it. 

 is there any way to clean combs that the 

 bees have spotted ? I do not think it a 

 good plan to use them if they can be 

 cleaned, as the bees will not remove all of 

 the spots from them ; but they will store 

 honey in them to winter on, and then per- 

 haps die during the next winter. As far 

 as I have heard, the loss of bees in this 



Eart of the country is about one-third, 

 last fall there were 734 colonies of bees, 

 and the total product of honey and bees- 

 wax for the past season was 14,799 pounds 

 of the former and 170 pounds of the latter. 



[That which the bees leave on the 

 combs, after cleansing and using them, 

 will not be injurious to tli% health of the 

 bees— being oidy stains which would be 

 difficult to remove even if attempted by 

 the apiarist.— Ed.] 



Pollen and Larral Bees.— Prof. A. 

 J. Cook, Agricultural College, 9Mich., 

 writes thus : 



I wish to express my hearty endorse- 

 ment of the able article from Mr. J. 

 Rutherford, on page 333. The article criti- 

 cizes two points in my Manual. The first 

 point criticized 1 leave wholly to the read- 

 ers, as I have no desire to change the sen- 

 tence in the Manual. Tlie point to be en- 

 forced, is that the larval state is the one of 

 growth and nutrition, par-excellence : and 

 this is true of bees, as of all insects. 1 had 

 no desire to go intodetails. The nextsen- 

 tence is surely worthy of criticism, and 

 will be changed in the next edition, 

 thanks to Mr. R. I never thought 

 that pollen was direct food of larval iiees, 

 although the sentence so puts it. Pollen 

 is never given as food to bees directly, but 

 is necessary either tlirough secretinn or 

 digestion on the part of the bees, to 

 furnish the pabulum for the larvae. When 

 I penned the sentence, I had no thought 

 that pollen, as pollen, was fed to bees ; I 

 meant to show that it was necessary to 

 brood-rearing. Whether the jelly fed to 

 young bees is wholly a secretion, ov is in 

 part digested pollen or pollen and honey, 

 is not yet shown. True, .some of the 

 savants of Germany hold that it is wholly 

 a secretion ; yet they are not positive. 



Black Drones and Italian Queens. — 

 D. L. Shapley,Randallsville,ON. Y., 

 writes thus on the above subject : 



I have been told that drones from a pure 

 Italian queen that was fertilized by a 

 black drone were just as pure to breed 

 from as were those that were reared from 

 an Italian queen that was purely mated. 

 I have not had exjjerience sufficient to 

 know, and I wish to keep my colonies as 

 pure as 1 can. I have had good success, I 

 think, for I have lost only 3 colonies dur- 

 ing tlie past two years, while others 

 around me have sometimes lost nearly all 

 of theirs. 



1. I have a pure Italian queen that was 

 fertilized bv a black drone ; will a queen 

 fertilized by a drone reared from such a 

 queen produce pure Italian bees ? 



3. 1 have a quantity of foundation made 

 one year ago ; will bees work on it as well 

 as on foundation made this season ? Will 

 it pay to have it melted and made over ? 



[1. No. 



3. It is not necessary to melt up old 

 foundation. Dip the sheets in hot water 

 (say from 100 to 110 Fahr.) ; and then keep 

 it in a warm room till needed. The bees 

 will accept it just as readily as newly- 

 made foundation.— Ed.] 



Great Losses of Bees.— James Ron- 

 ian, Villisca, 9 Iowa, on April 30, 

 1885, writes : 



Over three-fourths of the bees in south- 

 western Iowa are dead. I had 41 colonies 

 that hibernated for good ; one of my 

 neighbors put up 90 colonies last fall, and 

 now lie has 3 left. Bee-keepers with 10 to 

 15 colonies have lost all. There are a lot 

 of long-faced bee-keepers in this part of 

 the country. What bees are alive are 

 doing well. They died in cellars as well 

 as on the summer stands. Diarrhea was 

 the cause. 



Those Ventilation Reports.- James 

 Heddon, Dowagiac, P Mich., writes 

 thus concerning them : 



X am receiving many valuable reports 

 on ventilation, but what I had reference 

 to, and most want, is regarding the 

 smallest amount of ventilation given in 

 winter repositories. I wish that bee- 

 keepers would respond to that question as 

 soon as their convenience would admit. 



